Our little Shepherd is here!!!

Hello Everyone,

Shepherd Thomas Shields surprised us by comeing 9 days before his due date on March 27 at 8:19am Saturday morning weighing 6lbs 9oz and 19 3/4 in long. He was due on my birthday, April 5th, so I guess he just didn't want to share his birthday!!

I've had a lot of people ask about my labor experience since most people knew I really wanted to go "natural" with no medication. So I thought I would share the craziest thing my body has every gone through!! (Boys....if you're uncomfortable with words like "dilate,effaced,...you may not want to read.)

I just want to start with by saying, I had a great pregnancy. Other than having morning sickness the first trimester, everything went pretty normal. I went through about 3 bottles of tums, 1 bottle of mylanta (nastiest tasting medication in the world), and like a million bottles of zantac battling the nasty heartburn I had. But that can be explained by the head full of hair my little one has!!! I worked the entire pregnancy and found myself loving to swim every chance I got.

So....The day I went into labor was actually a great day. I went swimming that morning, ate lunch at my favorite coffee shop, finished up at 10 week Bible study with a friend, and was finally able to get my pedicure. For some reason, I had it set in my mind that I HAD to get a pedicure and have pretty feet before I had a baby!!! That night (Friday night) I was joking with Thomas that he was lucky that I didn't have any weird food cravings and that I never made him get up in the middle of the night for a grocery run for ice cream and pickles. However, I told Thomas, "I'm really craving a chocolate milkshake from Baskin Robins, I have to have one now!" So we set out to fulfill the only food I just "had to have" during the entire pregnancy. As soon as we ordered, I noticed that I "just wasn't feeling right". I was having some of the practice contractions I had been having for weeks, but these were hurting just a little bit. We got home, I drank about 4 sips of that milkshake and had to put down because my contractions were not going away like they normally would after a few minutes. I went to lay down in bed to see if that would help and after about 30 minutes they still weren't going away. They weren't really hurting, it was just more frustrating than anything that I couldn't get them to stop like I normally could.

My husband, being the wonderful labor coach that he was, suggested that I take a hot shower. Brilliant!!! That always made them stop before. So I took my hot shower, brushed my teeth, and laid back in bed. All of a sudden, I'm having to breath through the contractions and they were starting to take my breath away. I got up to walk for a second and next think I knew, I was laying on the floor during the contractions screaming, "Thomas help me, I can't do this, make it stop!!!" Every contraction at that point put me on the floor screaming!!! I remember thinking, "What happen to just easing into labor!!."

After about an hour of intense back to back contractions, I told Thomas to call our Doula, Tamisha, to start making her way to our house. Thomas apparently wasn't convinced I was in labor for some reason, "I don't want to call her unless we're sure you're in labor, it's 12:30am, I don't want to wake her." Are you kidding me!! Let's see, yelling for almost 2 hours now during contractions...how could he not think I'm in labor?? "Thomas, this baby is coming," I told him. I think he needed to hear those words for some reason. He called Tamisha and she told me to get in the tub until she got there.

I had heard by women who had had natural births that being in hot water was the best thing and you don't want to get out....so true!!! Everything still hurt but I was able to relax a little better. My doula finally got to our house around 1pm. What a relief. So pretty much for the next 4 hours Thomas and Tamisha made me walk and get in a lot of different positions to keep things moving. They let me get back in the tub and it was at that point that I felt that whole"pressure" thing. This may be T.M.I., but I felt a bowling ball was trying to make its way out of my bottom!!! The contractions weren't the worst of it but the pressure. I had that feeling for a couple of hours, then I told them " I feel like this baby is going to come out every time I have a contraction." Tamisha finally mentioned that we may need to start heading to the hospital. " I'm not going," I stated. At that point, Thomas who was just as exhausted as I was said, " You don't NEED to go to the hospital or you just don't WANT to go." I told him, " I don't want to go, I'll just have him here at home." As quickly as I said that, Thomas was up and loading up the car. I begged them to not make me go.

The ride to the hospital was just as bad as I dreamed it would be. I felt every pot hole on Chapman Hwy. It seemed like an eternity before we got to the hospital. They wheeled me up and put me in the triage room. The nurse checked me and said I was 9cm dilated and his head was right there. I had an out loud praise party when I heard the number 9!!! "Thank you Jesus, Praise the Lord!!!" Next thing I knew, they rolled me into the "ready room" (the room they keep reserved for women who come in and the baby is ready to come out). It was shift change at this point and my 2 favorite doctors where there. The doctor offered to break my water and said I could start pushing once he broke it..."Break it please, I'm ready to push!" He broke my water, and I sat up and started pushing. Fifteen or so minutes later, there he came. Just to add, once he broke my water, I felt no pain, not even when I was pushing. I did feel that "ring of fire" sensation right when his head came out but other than that...no pain.

9 hours of labor...and here he was...so perfect...with a head full of hair. I fell in love instantly with Shepherd and fell in love with my husband all over again. Look at our precious gift from God!!

I was extremely scared about natural child birth, but I had a friend tell me to relate it to what Christ endured while he was on the Cross. Jesus suffered and felt pain to give life. So I knew I was going to have to endure pain to give life. The Bible says that when Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem he "set His face like flint" b/c He knew He was going to suffer. "It was for the joy set before Him." So I knew I was going to have to set my face like flint and endure the pain, but there was going to be so much joy at the end....and there was,Shepherd Thomas.

looking rough..I know...I did labor all through the night!!!